Tesla sales fall across Europe again as BYD surges; Ryanair to appeal €256m fine from Italy’s competition authority – business live

Good morning, and welcome to our rolling coverage of business, the financial markets and the world economy.Sales of Tesla’s electric cars fell across Europe again last month, as the company’s annus horribilis continued.European auto lobby ACEA is reporting this morning that Tesla registrations tumbled by 34.2% in the European Union year-on-year in November, and fell by 11.8% across the wider EU, Britain and European Free Trade Association area

Ryanair fined €256m over ‘abusive strategy’ to limit ticket sales by online travel agencies

Ryanair has been fined €256m (£223m) by Italy’s competition authority for abusing its dominant market position to limit sales of tickets by online travel agents.The authority said Europe’s largest airline had “implemented an abusive strategy to hinder travel agencies” via an “elaborate strategy” of technical obstacles for agents and passengers to make it difficult for online travel agents to sell Ryanair tickets and instead force sales through its own website.The fine related to Ryanair’s conduct between April 2023 and at least until April 2025, the authority said on Tuesday. It said Ryanair had prevented online travel agents from selling tickets on its flights in combination with other airlines and services, weakening competition.Ryanair said it would immediately appeal against the “legally flawed” ruling

Activist group says it has scraped 86m music files from Spotify

An activist group has claimed to have scraped millions of tracks from Spotify and is preparing to release them online.Observers said the apparent leak could boost AI companies looking for material to develop their technology.A group called Anna’s Archive said it had scraped 86m music files from Spotify and 256m rows of metadata such as artist and album names. Spotify, which hosts more than 100m tracks, confirmed that the leak did not represent its entire inventory.The Stockholm-based company, which has more than 700 million users worldwide, said it had “identified and disabled the nefarious user accounts that engaged in unlawful scraping”

Chinese robotaxis due in London next year as Lyft and Uber reveal tie-ups

Chinese robotaxis are due to be on the streets of London next year after the US ride-hailing companies Lyft and Uber announced tie-ups with Beijing-based Baidu to deploy its self-driving technology.Lyft is the third firm to announce plans to introduce self-driving taxis to the UK capital next year, after Uber and Waymo, the main operator of robotaxis in the US.Its ride-hailing services are the major rival to Uber’s in the US and Canada, and this year Lyft expanded into Europe after acquiring the Freenow app in the summer.While Uber had signed a deal to work with Baidu in the summer in other global markets, it had not until now said that the Chinese tech company’s Apollo Go cars were planned for London. It had previously announced its services would be operated with self-driving technology from the UK-US firm Wayve

The Breakdown | Chile coach Pablo Lemoine: ‘Rugby is in trouble, even in countries like Wales’

How did Pablo Lemoine, Chile’s head coach, react when they were drawn with Australia and New Zealand for the 2027 Rugby World Cup? The answer is perceptive and somewhat surprising.“When countries like Chile play in a World Cup you need a general vision,” Lemoine says. “Thinking only of sport it’s fantastic – it’s awesome. But thinking of the real impact Chile needs: development programmes, political impact, social impact … for our fans, it’s much more difficult to find tickets when you play the All Blacks or Australia.”Speaking on Zoom from Chile’s Parque Mahuida training base in Santiago, the 50-year-old sits in front of a whiteboard crammed with densely packed handwritten text, neatly illustrating his attention to detail

A brutal schedule, merciless crowds and always on the road: is professional darts all it’s cracked up to be?

For many of the performers in the 12-month circus, the tour can be soul-destroying and lonely with only the promise of untold wealth to keep them chasing the dream“It’s a lonely place,” Stephen Bunting reflected as he sat quietly in Alexandra Palace on Saturday night, the tears welling in his eyes. “If things don’t go right, you can look at your family, your management, you can look at your sponsors. But it’s down to you. And yeah, I’m getting a bit emotional, but … ”These are stories darts is less keen on telling. Ever since this sport burst out of the smoky pubs and on to our television screens, it has possessed a kind of hedonistic, hyperreal quality, a game in which normal guys slip on their superhero suits and take a shot at unimaginable riches, unimaginable fame